BP says the company spent approximately $9.5 billion responding to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

BP says it has sealed the Maconda well for good by pumping cement into the annulus.

The relief well intersected the Maconda well at 4:30 p.m. yesterday.

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has gone to court to force the owners of the Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig,

3,634 birds killed, 1,042 birds impacted by oil

BP today resumed work on the relief well that will intersect the original blown-out Maconda Well.

The Loyola University College of Law today announced a symposium that will be held on Friday, Sept. 17 from 1:15 pm to 5:30 pm.

The 300-ton oil well blowout preventer has reached the NASA Facility in New Orleans.

Admiral Thad Allen today gave BP permission to move forward with inspecting the casing hanger in the shut-off well.

BP says it will allocate $10 million to the National Institutes of Health to study potential health hazards.

The U.S. justice Department is refusing to confirm reports that the blow out preventer is on its way to a NASA facility in Louisiana to be analyzed.

The damaged blowout preventer was slowly lifted today from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and reeled onto the vessel Q4000 using drilling string.

BP has successfully removed the damaged blowout preventer and replaced it with a new one.

BP succeeded today in removing the capping stack that was sitting atop the damaged blowout preventer that’s atop the Maconda well.

Admiral Thad Allen said today that weather conditions are expected to be suitable within the next 24 to 36 hours to resume efforts to lift the damaged blowout preventer from the ocean floor.

President Obama was in Louisiana to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Ken Feinberg, the man in charge of paying claims against BP says thousands of people have submitted their paperwork with little or no documentation.

Admiral Thad Allen said today crews have not been able to recover pipe from the damaged blowout preventer sitting atop the Maconda well.

A second BP employee said today during joint hearings conducted by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that he never noticed a gas flow warning on the Deepwater Horizon Rig before it exploded.

BP is deploying two new vehicles to the Gulf of Mexico to help scientists monitor the quality of the water.

Brian Morel, a BP engineer who was part of a team that designed the Macondo well that blew April 20, has evoked his Fifth Amendment right, refusing to testify today at the federal hearings underway in Houston.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Energy Management moved their joint hearings on the cause of the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster from Kenner, Louisiana, to Houston, Texas.

Admiral Allen urges BP to preserve with evidentiary value the blow out preventer, the capping stack and any other equipment they pull up from the floor of the Gulf as they enter the final phase of capping the blown out well.

BP today began removing drill pipe from the blowout preventer from atop the Maconda well.

The Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries Commission today ordered the immediate opening of all state inshore and offshore territorial waters to recreational angling, including charter boat angling.

Admiral Thad Allen has authorized BP to replace the blowout preventer (BOP) on the Maconda Well.

People have three months to file their claims.

BP says tomorrow will be its final day of accepting claims as a result of the oil spill.

Containing Macondo, $52M fund established

President Obama, his wife and children visited Panama City, Florida and went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to convince tourists the water is safe. The president said however, the federal government’s job isn’t complete and the federal government will continue to oversee the situation.

Coast Guard says BP must move forward with bottom kill

The storm making its way through the Gulf of Mexico washed oily debris onto the beach at Gulf State Park near Mobile, Alabama. The material covered an area that is about 10-foot wide and 1,000-foot long.

Drilling on the Macondo Well is suspended because of a tropical depression.

BP says it is satisfied that the cement plugging the Macondo Well has hardened.

BP officials said today they may later drill a well to tap into the reservoir, from which oil flowed in to the Gulf of Mexico for almost three months.

BP says it has finished cementing the well from the top. It says it should finish killing the well from the bottom using the relief well in mid August.

Admiral Thad Allen gives BP permission to cement the well from the top.

BP begins “static kill”, the process of injecting one barrel of mud per minute into the well.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a second round of testing shows that oil broken up with dispersants used amid the spewing oil were no more toxic than oil that has not been mixed with dispersants.

Federal wildlife officials are relocating 145 eggs of Loggerhead sea turtles found in St. Vincent and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuges in Florida.

Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey released a letter critical of the use of the amount of dispersants used in the Gulf amid the flowing oil.

BP today announced it has hired James Lee Witt and his public safety and crisis management consulting firm to serve as it’s liaison with the federal, state and local governments in fulfilling its responsibilities after the oil spill.

Admiral Thad Allen says there is no timeline yet for leaving the Gulf.

The Coast Guard says very little of the oil that’s being detected in the Gulf of Mexico is recoverable at this stage.

A barge that was being pushed by a tugboat rammed into an oil and gas platform in the Gulf today, causing oil to leak into the Gulf.

Admiral Allen announced a timeline for killing the well. BP today announced that Tony Hayward is stepping down as the company’s chief executive.

Crews today started lowering the riser pipe necessary to resume drilling the oldest relief well and encasing it with steel.

Tropical Storm Bonnie weakens to a tropical depression before moving inland along Louisiana’s border with Mississippi.

BP and the Coast Guard began relocating all of the vessels involved in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico because of Tropical Storm Bonnie.

NOAA today reopened more than 26,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico to commercial and recreational fishing.

BP and the Coast Guard are closely monitoring a tropical weather system moving toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Leak may have been reported earlier; Testimony before Congress

BP reports that the oil pressure in the well has risen to 6,792 and continues to rise slowly.

The seepage of either oil or natural gas is being reported in an area that is away from the wellhead.

BP and the federal government decide to continue the well integrity test for another 24 hours.

The well pressure is measured at 6,700 and rising slowly.

86 days after explosion oil appears to be stopped; Officials cautious yet optimistic

Valves to close on new Cap; Financial Institutions encouraged to "work with customers"

New Cap in Place; $99.7 Million bill sent to BP; Congress examining liability limits of companies

Presidential commission meets; Adm. Thad Allen relaxes media restrictions

Politicians/Scientific Comm

Top hat removed

Top hat to be replaced; New boom at Rigolets

The MZ-3A blimp arrived in New Orleans today.

Admiral Thad Allen today announced the launch of a federal website dedicated to updating the public on the oil spill.

Severe weather continues to delay BP’s efforts to use a third vessel to collect oil from the bubbling wellhead.

The U.S. Guard is apparently impressed with the success of the Heavy Oil Recovery Device or HORD in sifting oil from the gulf.

Weather delays additional tests to determine the capabilities of A Whale in retrieving oil from Louisiana Waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Clumps of oil are now covering much of the beach in Perdido Key along the Florida and Alabama line.

BP says a limited number of skimmers are once again operating in the Gulf of Mexico, despite the fact that wind and water conditions are still not ideal following Hurricane Alex.

Taiwan has sent 1,100 foot long tanker that is 10 stories high into the Gulf of Mexico to help with skimming oil.

The federal government orders the state to shutdown dredging at Chandeleur Island because of high winds and tall waves coming from the outer bands of Hurricane Alex.

Vice-president Joe Biden is in New Orleans today.

BP says it should be able to add a floating riser containment system to oil collections in the gulf in the next few days, using the Helix Producer I vessel.

Independent owners of BP gasoline stations are urging BP to do more to convincer motorists to avoid shunning their stations.

Experts say a dolphin that beached itself in Pensacola two days ago died of oil-related causes.

A containment cap stopped limiting the flow of oil from the damaged wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico for 11 hours today.

A federal judge in New Orleans issues a ruling blocking Pres. Obama’s six month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael R. Bromwich has been appointed to take over as director of the government agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, formerly the Minerals Management Services.

Thirty-eight oily pelicans from Louisiana have been cleaned up and released into the wild in Texas.

Plaquemines Parish executives appeal to the White House after the Coast Guard shuts down their oil collection operations involving two barges.

The Associated Press says 22 nations have offered the U.S. assistance in fighting the oil spill, but, just about every country wants to get paid for their help. The U.S. always offers emergency aid for free, revealing a double standard.

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce conducts hearings on what went wrong with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and efforts to stop the leak.

Pres. Obama has gotten BP to consent to put $20-billion in escrow to pay for damages and losses caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

BP began siphoning oil from the damaged wellhead using a second mechanism today.

BP stopped capturing oil through the containment cap atop its disabled wellhead for about five hours today due to a lightning strike.

BP says it has captured 127,000 barrels of oil through the cap placed on top of the leaking wellhead on the floor of the gulf.

BP lowers sensors down to the scene of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Coast Guard tells BP to come up with a better plan for salvaging the oil still gushing into the gulf.

Coast Guard Adml. Thad Allen raises concerns about possible damage to the casing surrounding the “well bore.”

The president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors says many companies may have to pull their rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico and go overseas, if Pres. Obama stands by a six month moratorium on deep-sea drilling.

BP releases new high-resolution video (much clearer video) of the oil gushing from the wellhead.

The wives of two of the Transocean workers killed during the explosion testify before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy Committee meeting in Chalmette, Louisiana.

Oil began washing ashore on the beaches of Pensacola Beach, Florida and Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The U.S. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries says it received reports of 85 live birds that have been contaminated with oil along the Gulf Coast, most of them in Louisiana.

BP achieves success in placing a lid over the rig riser that’s spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The federal government gives Louisiana approval on six berms, or walls of sand to prevent oil from flowing further inland.

It is the first day of hurricane season.

A coastal advisor to Gov. Jindal proposes building wetland terraces and planting marsh grasses.

"Top kill" declared failure.

President Obama visits Grand Isle and meets with Coast Guard officials as well as local and regional elected officials to discuss the oil spill.

The head of the Minerals Management Services, Elizabeth Birnbaum resigns under pressure.

BP begins “top kill;” the process of pumping what it calls “kill mud;” heavy fluid into the wellhead.

The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Interior releases a report indicating that employees with the Minerals Management Service in Lake Charles have been far ”too cozy” with oil companies.

Some environmentalists are concerned about the safety of the chemical dispersant being used to break-up the oil.

Two major pelican rookeries are now covered with crude.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announces the largest closure of state waters to fishermen since the oil spill.

Oil washes inland on Grand Isle, Louisiana forcing officials there to shut-down the beach.

BP concedes that more oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico than originally estimated.

Heavy oil begins washing up into Louisiana’s marshland.

Regulators doubled the territory in the Gulf of Mexico that has been shutdown to fishing. It reaches 19 percent.

B.P. begins drilling a second relief well.

Four large plumes of oil detected just beneath the surface of the sea.

U.S. Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announces that an attempt to capture some of the oil flowing into the Gulf using a 6-inch tube has failed.

President Obama expresses frustration and anger.

BP announces plans to try to contain the oil using a tube that is 6-inches in diameter and 5,000-feet-long.

Tar balls begin washing inland at South Pass in Plaquemines Parish.

BP begins lowering a containment device called a “top hat” to the ocean floor to try to capture the guzzling oil.

BP announces two possible new options for trying to stop the oil flow.

Containment structure failed because frozen hydrates blocked pipes.

Crews lowered a 125-ton steel dome into the Gulf of Mexico.

The first oil is spotted on one of Louisiana’s barrier islands, Chandeleur Island.

BP does five “controlled burns” of oil.

Three men who survived the oil rig file a lawsuit in Galveston, Texas.

BP CEO Tony Haywood says his company is injecting dispersant chemicals into the oil.

BP begins drilling the first of two relief wells.

Pres. Obama bans any new drilling in coastal waters.

Some 200 fishermen pack into the St. Bernard Parish Council Chamber.

The estimate on the oil leaking from the wellhead jumps from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels a day.

BP engineers use robot submarines to try to activate a valve called a blowout preventer to shutoff the oil flow.

The U.S. Coast Guard discovers oil is leaking from the wellhead.

The U.S. Coast Guard calls off its search for the 11 workers missing since the rig explosion.

The rig sinks, ending the fire.

The New Orleans Times Picayune reports that the broken down rig is leaking more than 300-thousand gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

Deepwater Horizon rig goes up in flames after an explosion around 10:00 p.m.